Is LocalBitcoins.com a good place to cash in them Bitcoins?

LocalBitcoins.com is an online bitcoin exchange website based in Finland which allows users to buy and sell bitcoin with other traders in your local region/country on a one-to-one basis.

This is a great place if you ever find yourself in a pinch and need to off-load some of your hard earned bitcoins in exchange for your local fiat currency or on the other hand, if your looking into investing in to some of this crypto then LocalBitcoins make it simple to get your hands on some.

Which ever way you swaying at the moment, I will share with you my experiences that I’ve had and give any advice where possible.

Platform features

Keeping users informed

Support for multiple languages, currencies & payment options

Supports both buy & sell

Live chat with other traders

Keeping users informed

Unlike many other platforms, LocalBitcoins doesn’t keep users in the dark about what’s happening with regards to latest news and can be found on many social networking sites for you to follow and they post any relevant news on their blog which is always a good thing when it comes to crypto currencies and it’s technology as we all know how quickly things change from time to time.

Support for multiple languages, currencies & payment options

It supports a multitude of countries from around the world and their respective local government issued fiat currencies to trade with so it shouldn’t be too difficult to cash in your bitcoin.

As well as countries & currencies, it also supports a multitude of payment options too. You can even trade with alt-coins!

Supports both buy & sell

It’s possible to both buy and sell with ease and I’ve had no problems at all with either of these trades as their is always someone wanting to buy and always someone wanting to sell.

Live chat with other users

Another great feature (and in my opinion it’s an important one) is supporting live chat between you and the seller/buyer. This makes communication as easy as possible and any notes on transactions etc. can be sent and received in real-time.

LocalBitcoins.com supports a multitude of payment options!

Becoming an advertised trader

With LocalBitcoins it’s possible to become a trader and create your own advertisement.

It’s easy to spot the good traders from the bad traders here as everyone who is involved in a transaction though the site is given the opportunity to rate and comment on the other peer.

This becomes available for everyone to see and it shows how trusted these traders really are. This is great for giving users the confidence in who they are dealing with.

You will notice that the trader will set their minimum and maximum amount that they’re willing to accept and this variates quite substantially across users. Some are great if your buying/selling small amounts and others are great when trading with larger amounts.

Usually, in my experience, the more you are willing to trade in a single transaction, the better deal you will get.

If you do have an advertised trade present on the platform, it’s quite easy to set your advert in to a ‘vacancy’ state which is a nice little feature to have if you’re going to be AFK for a while.

And don’t forget that there is a 1 percent platform fee here with any successful transactions while dealing through your advert.

Staying within the platform

One of the great features with LocalBitcoins is the escrow service that is fundamental to any trade deal here. The platform will hold the bitcoins in escrow and the seller will only release the bitcoins once the payment is made and the seller has identified that the payment has been made.

Only then would the seller release the bitcoins from escrow and it will become available in the buyers account wallet.

ALWAYS make sure that the payment has gone through before releasing any bitcoins and don’t take anyone’s word for it.

It is your responsibility that payments are made before handing over the goods.

Another note here: Don’t hold too much bitcoin within the platform its self as like all other crypto currency platforms, this is not a safe, secure, personal wallet.

So stay smart and move it out and into your own wallet in another corner of the web some place or even store it off line.

Things to note

As a seller you may find it hard to find a buyer who is willing to accept anything less than $50 worth of BTC. Although not impossible as there has been occasions where people have bought $10 from me in the past.

Don’t forget that with any bitcoin transaction, you will always need to pay the usual (relatively small) bitcoin network transaction fee when applicable.

As the price of bitcoin fluctuates, don’t rely on prices to stay the same for very long, as I have noticed in the past that traders will keep updating their advertisements to stay in line with the BTC price shift.

An honourable mention

Bitcoin World Map App

On a complete unrelated note here, If you want to find bitcoin traders near you then I would also recommend the ‘Bitcoin World Map’ app here for android available on the Google Play store.

I have no connection with this app or it’s developers but I do like this app and hopefully I see more and more traders appearing on this in the future.

I have discovered local commercial traders on the high street who surprisingly accept bitcoin as payment in their stores by using this app!

Conclusion

As of yet this is the only platform that I use to trade bitcoins with my local government issued fiat currency and because I have had no problems what so ever using this site as of yet, then I have no real reason to try any other site at the moment.

It’s a very friendly place to trade and I would highly recommend this to anyone who is wanting to either buy or sell their bitcoins online.

You can check out LocalBitcoins.com here. I am currently an affiliate member so I may receive a small commission by using this link.

If you’re just starting out with bitcoin and would like to know how to get involved in this crypto currency then check out my other article on ‘How to Get started using bitcoin’ where I share my experiences and thoughts.

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About Me

installtekz

Welcome to installtekz-online.com! This site is for young aspiring hackers who want to learn about Linux and Networking. I'm planning on adding a little Penetration Testing in the future too. From time-to-time I will also be throwing in some reviews of online platforms, hardware and any other computer/internet related topics I've been checking out. I'm a hobbyist in electronics, linux, networking and network security. My aim here is to bring you as much helpful content as possible by giving you my experiences I've had along my long and forever increasing journey of the computer world. You can also find some of my apps on Google Play & Amazon. hold on-to your hats, we're going down the rabbit hole..

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“Some of the links on my blog are affiliate links, and at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you decide to make a purchase. Please understand that I have experience with all of these companies and I recommend them because they are extremely helpful. Plus, by using my affiliate links, you are helping me keep this blog up and running.” -installtekz

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